This cafe never closed after Lahaina's fires, extending a lifeline of normalcy

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/29/ [login to see] /this-cafe-never-closed-after-lahainas-fires-extending-a-lifeline-of-normalcy
It might seem odd for a restaurant on the edge of a disaster zone to stay open.

But Java Jazz, a cafe just a few miles from Lahaina's scorched downtown, never shut down after the Aug. 8 catastrophe. While dozens of businesses shuttered, it kept serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, giving a lifeline of normalcy to locals, emergency workers, and tourists who had nowhere else to go.

"A lot of our customers know that we won't close," the owner, Farzad Azad, said during a recent visit to the cafe. "We'll give everything away, and make sure everybody has something to eat" rather then close, he added.